Know Who You’re Advertising To (And It Isn’t Everybody!)

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When you ask a business owner who his product is for, it’s not uncommon for him to say, “Everybody!”

For the moment, we’ll forgive his enthusiasm. After all, consumer products with mass appeal do make a lot of money. And many products generally could benefit everybody, although they shouldn’t be marketed to everybody.

That’s why even products with mass appeal are positioned to attract a certain type of person. The marketing team knows who they’re advertising to. And they know (and communicate) the intangible ideas the product represents or delivers.

Let me give you a relatively easy example: patio homes.

Here in the U.S., a patio home is generally a single-level house with a small yard — and ALL the landscaping and snow removal is done for you. This service is built into the HOA fees, which means you’ll pay much larger monthly fees than you will in a standard neighborhood.

Now who is the ideal person for this type of product? Think about it for a minute before you keep reading.

Have you got your ideal person in mind? Have you thought about what motivates him or her? Good. Let’s move on.

The ideal type of person for a patio home is:

Somebody who no longer wants to do (or simply can’t do) outdoor work anymore.

Somebody who doesn’t want or need as much square footage in his or her home.

Somebody who has the money and motive to pay the more expensive HOA fees.

Now, based on this information, we can probably also assume that the person we’ve just described is between the ages of 55 and 65, and is either approaching retirement or already retired.

Furthermore, we may also assume that our newly retired prospect will soon be traveling the world with his or her spouse, and that one of their motivations for getting a patio home is to have the freedom to travel without worrying about taking care of their landscaping.

Now imagine: If you knew all this about your ideal prospects, don’t you think it would influence WHO you advertise to — and HOW you advertise to them?

Of course!

You see, the problem with “everybody” is it’s just too many people. There are 6 billion people in the world — 300 million in the United States alone. Trust me: You don’t have the budget, the time, or the manpower to market to “everybody.”

So let’s talk about how you discover your ideal prospect and position your product or service to appeal to him…